Court Repairs A Trial For Workers

West Palm Staff Deals With Delays

January 3, 2006|By John CotM-i Staff Writer

By now, judges, lawyers and court staff were supposed to be settling into a refurbished federal courthouse in West Palm Beach.

Instead, more than a year since the mold-infested building was closed after hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, they're still working from rented offices or trekking to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Pierce or Miami for hearings and trials in borrowed courtrooms.

The most recent setback was a pipe fitting that gave way a few days before Hurricane Wilma hit in October.

A rupture sent gallons of water spewing across the third floor of the nearly restored Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, causing more than $550,000 in damage and setting repair work back months, said Jill Shafer, project manager with the U.S. General Services Administration in Atlanta.

"A lot of work we had done from May to September was ruined by the water pouring in for about 12 hours," Shafer said. "It wet the new carpet, the new ceiling tiles and all the new drywall. ... We're looking to have everybody back in the building in March."

The pipe burst in an area where workers had not been operating, Shafer said, attributing the break to fatigued metal that had been installed 30 or more years ago.

"It was nobody's fault," she said. "It was just the luck of the draw that that pipe fitting cracked when it did."

New work will boost the total repair cost from about $1.8 million to about $3 million, Shafer said. New costs include fixing the water damage from the burst pipe and about $600,000 to install a more cost-efficient rooftop air-intake unit to reduce heat and humidity in the building.

The air-intake unit was planned as a later addition, but with the water damage delay, Shafer decided to move ahead with it.

"It makes good sense," she said. "The problem in the tropics is that with humid air, the less you can bring into the building, the less chance you're going to have problems with mold and humidity and those issues."

Court workers were resigned to the setback and the expected March 15 re-opening.

"Folks were disappointed," said Clarence Maddox, court administrator and clerk for the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, from Fort Pierce to Key West.

"We all want to get back into the federal courthouse as soon as possible so we can resume our business in a more normal way," Maddox said. "We've been out now for over a year. Its really hard to fully understand the impact this has had on our operations."

Lawyers, judges and some court staff based in Palm Beach County have had to travel primarily to Fort Pierce or Fort Lauderdale for hearings and trials since the courthouse closed Nov. 19, 2004, after some staff got sick. Tests revealed a serious mold problem.

About a dozen people have been working out of rented office space in the Forum Business Park on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, Maddox said.

"Those people who are also assigned to support judges have to travel with those judges to wherever we can find places to sit," Maddox said. "That's been our biggest administrative challenge -- finding the open courtrooms."

Judges "basically had to ask their colleagues for space," said West Palm Beach defense lawyer Scott Richardson, who represented convicted murderer Michael Koblan during a lengthy federal trial that was moved to Fort Lauderdale.

"Those courtrooms are all occupied," Richardson said. "The judges themselves had to work out how to make a courtroom available for that length of time."

Lawyers with federal clients faced similar obstacles and additional costs.

Richardson and co-counsel Jack Goldberger lived in a Fort Lauderdale hotel for about a month when Koblan's trial in the death of a Singer Island couple began in February.

A daily commute from West Palm Beach during the trial would have been essentially impossible, Richardson said. Because both of Koblan's attorneys were court-appointed, the federal government paid for their meals, hotel and parking costs during the trial.

Working a complex trial on the road was a mixed experience, Richardson said.

"It was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I don't like spending time away from my family," he said. "On the other hand, if you're not going home every night ... there are fewer distractions and you're almost forced to spend that time that you would otherwise be traveling back home to prepare for the next day of trial. "

John CotM-i can be reached at jwcote@sun-sentinel.com or 561-228-5502.